Chicago Cubs, Toyota Team Up on Wrigley Sign

The Chicago Cubs, a Major League
Baseball franchise that’s played 101 seasons since its last
championship, is teaming up with Toyota Motor Corp., the
automaker facing more than 200 lawsuits.

The partnership between the world’s biggest carmaker,
which recalled more than 8 million vehicles since last
year, and the team legendary for its inability to win
another World Series, gained the backing yesterday of the
Commission on Chicago Landmarks.

While the panel approved a Toyota sign to go atop
Wrigley Field’s left-field bleachers, local political
tradition may put the brakes on the Cubs and the
automaker’s plans. Chicago aldermen defer to each other on
zoning matters, and Tom Tunney, who represents the city’s
Wrigleyville community, opposes the nearly 60-foot tall
advertisement.

“It is not in keeping with the character of the
neighborhood,” Tunney told the landmarks commission. He
urged the Cubs’ new owners, led by Incapital LLC chairman
Thomas S. Ricketts, to “step back” and consider
developing a master plan for ballpark signage rather than a
piecemeal approach.

Ricketts brought along Baseball Hall of Fame member
Ernie Banks, known as Mr. Cub, to make the case that the
sign is a key to winning a title while maintaining the
viability of the team’s 96-year-old home.

“It’s more than just a sign to us,” said Ricketts,
who led an ownership group that acquired the team and
Wrigley Field last year from Chicago real estate magnate
Sam Zell for about $900 million. “It’s a multimillion-
dollar revenue opportunity.”

Grim History

The Cubs haven’t won a championship since 1908 and
haven’t appeared in the World Series since 1945. Toyota is
coping with more recent history.

The automaker last year began recalling some of its
Toyota and Lexus models after receiving reports of
unintended vehicle acceleration resulting in accidents.
Last month, the company agreed to pay a record $16.4
million fine, levied by the U.S. Transportation Department,
following a federal investigation into the pace of the
company’s defect disclosures and recalls.

Toyota at the same time recalled its Lexus GX 460
sport utility vehicle after the U.S.-based Consumer Reports
magazine said it could roll over in certain driving
conditions. The company, which has been named in more than
200 lawsuits, has denied wrongdoing.

Wrigley ‘Privilege’

“We consider it a privilege to have such a visible
presence at Wrigley Field,” Detroit-based Toyota spokesman
Curt McAllister said in a phone interview.

The ballpark, built in 1914, is the second oldest in
the major leagues, next to Boston’s Fenway Park. With a
seating capacity of 41,160, Wrigley last year drew more
than 3 million fans.

Chicago gave the privately owned structure landmark
status in 2004.

More than 100 people packed a City Hall meeting room
for yesterday’s landmarks hearing. Purists criticized
the plan.

“There’s nothing nostalgic about encouraging me to
buy a Toyota,” said Matt Garard, 24, who is studying
comedy at Chicago’s Second City improv school and theater.
“If I want to buy a Toyota, I know where to get one.”

Ricketts told the panel his ownership group had
invested $10 million in stadium repairs and upkeep between
the end of the 2009 season and the start of the current
campaign.

Tunney, after the hearing, said the 360-square foot
area of the sign mandates that its addition to the park be
reviewed by the City Council’s subcommittee on buildings
and then the entire 50-member body.

Ricketts dismissed Tunney’s suggestion that a more
comprehensive plan was needed. The sign, which will stand
16 feet above the top of the bleacher seats, will likely be
the only one erected in the outfield, Ricketts said.

The ballpark has long attracted litigation, including
a fight over the installation of lights that ended in 1988.
In 2004, the team settled with property owners along
bordering Sheffield and Waveland avenues who charge
admission for fans to watch games from rooftop bleachers.

Under that 20-year accord, the building owners are to
remit 17 percent of their revenue to the ballclub. Ricketts
told the landmarks panel that the sign was sited to not obstruct
those views.

Though many who attended the hearing voiced support
for the Toyota ad, Cub fans such as Garard lamented the
further commercialization of Wrigley.

“This sign will mark the beginning of the end of the
integrity of our ballpark,” he said.